Surrey's day-care sector is about to welcome a new kid to the playground.
BrightPath, a child-care provider that offers services to children as young as six weeks old and up to 12 years, is opening a centre on 72nd Avenue close to Langley.
Billed as “child developers,” the company started in Alberta in 2010 and now operates more than 50 centres across the country. BrightPath says it will offer services to area residents looking to give their kids a leg up in education, nutrition and recreational services.
Mary Ann Curran, BrightPath's chief executive officer, said the new facility's fees are “not going to be at the low end of the market, but we're not pricing ourselves out of the market.”
“We certainly will be setting prices with full awareness of what the other centres in neighbouring communities are charging,” Curran said.
“We provide for dual-income families and it's often because their lifestyle depends on both parents working.”
The Surrey centre expects to accommodate about 200 children in 18,000 square feet and will have a nutritional meal program, a gardening area, tricycle paths and an outdoor “quiet space.”
Curran said BrightPath is not about babysitting.
“We're child developers at the physical, intellectual and social elements. And we provide more of a holistic program.”
Traditionally, child-care facilities and after-school programs tend to be small businesses, and a fair number run out of people's homes.
Curran said a large company like BrightPath can offer services the “mom-and-pop” shops can't afford.
“There's some people out there who say that being a larger provider is a bad thing. But we actually look at it like our mass makes us a better alternative. Because if you just own a couple of centres you can't afford to sink a million dollars into curriculum. And you don't have 50 centres to spread it over, so our size is one of our positive differentiators.”
